North Country Race Talk

For all interested.
We are in the process of seeing if there is interest in a traveling series for the 4 cylinder, or sport compact type cars. With the closing of AIS this year, this has forced us to look elsewhere to be able to race in 2010. What we are looking into is a traveling series, that would visit various tracks throughout NY state, and possibly some tracks into Canada if possible. For this coming season (2010) we are looking at putting together anywhere between 3 and 5 race weekends where we would travel to various tracks to race. The idea is to create a “race weekend” where we could race at at least two tracks possibly on a Friday and Saturday night in the same weekend. This would help keep the traveling costs down, as well as allow us to have plenty of “off” weekends to allow us to do some other things beside race during the summer. (something that I know my wife will love……)

John Croasdale is the man who basically has this plan put together, and after speaking with him last night on the phone, he has spent countless hours on legwork to get this off the ground in terms of scheduling, possible series sponsors, possible tire sponsors, a point structure, a set of rules for various 4 cylinder cars, etc. We talked for nearly an hour and we just scratched the surface of what he has already put together.

Tracks that we are currently considering: Oswego (during the year and the Race of Champions), Spencer, Shangri La, Albany Saratoga, Chemung, Lake Erie, possibly a road course, etc.
And I know there are a ton of other tracks that John Croasdale had mentioned, that I am forgetting………(please fill them in John if you see this post.)

This is still in its infancy, but the idea here is to be proactive and get things in place early, so that next summer we will have a series and a set of races to attend.

Important Items:

1.)This series is in no way tied to Adirondack Speedway. We will be an entirely separate series run and controlled by ourselves. Our rules, tech, etc will all be controlled by us.

2.) The current idea for cars is to have three types of 4 cylinders, a stock class, a Modified class, and an outlaw class. These cars will be designated by different letters after the numbers, or a color on the windshield, etc. They will be scored separately, and payout will be separate for each group. The idea here is to attract many different people to the series, current AIS cars, a stock type 4 cylinder, and also a slightly modified. This will also allow other 4 cylinder cars to race with us at other tracks that we race at. In addition, this would also allow someone to build a car for next year at a small expense and be able to race and travel next year.

3.) This post will be used for generating interest and to get the word out only. Soon we will be developing our own website and forum separate from AIS to make this happen.

In order to get this going, we need to see if we are able to get a core group that want to do this. We were thinking for this year if we had 10 people that would do this, that we would get things off the ground. I know of at least 3-4 of the Sport Compact guys who are interested, and will be contacting the rest to see their ideas. We’re not solely looking for Sport Compact guys. Anyone and everyone should consider this. Again, there are many different levels to get going. (By the way, there are a bunch of good, solid 4 cylinder cars sitting in garages around this area, probably with a pretty affordable price tag…….)

Again, we are just putting out some feelers to see how much interest is here for this. If we get decent feedback we’ll put it together, if not, well, I guess the ole geo will sit all summer long…….

Again, this post is just to get the word out, soon we’ll be moving away from this forum to a separate website. I’ll post the website here when that happens, but for now you can post here saying that you would be interested, or better yet give me a call (315-771-0753) with questions or comments.

Thanks
Nate Plantz
315-771-0753

Nate:

It would be great if something like this could get going for you guys. I'm not sure if Dunn Tire Raceway Park (Lancaster) is on your list or not, or if it's too far away, but they did have a 4 cylinder class there last year on the 1/4 mile oval inside the bigger track. It was a far cheaper class than ours was but it would be interesting to see how they would respond to a touring series. I used to work there and could try to put in a word although the track has changed owners since I left. I still know the announcer there fairly well (Dave "the Dude" Buchanan). If you get a Spencer date on a Friday, it isn't all that much further to Lancaster for a Saturday show.

I enjoyed working with all the 4 cylinder teams at AIS as the racing was close and all the drivers were cooperative and informative, the kind of thing that would be attractive to other tracks. If I have a chance to talk to someone, I'll put in a word for you guys. Good luck!

Keith

If I build a 22 truck, can I race that????????

If anyone knows some phone numbers for tim dunn, Tom dubach, Scott shafer, the brighams, Todd bailey or any of the other 4 cylinder guys could you please email me at nplantz@gmail.com. It'll just save me a ton of time trying to find all these numbers. Please don't post any numbers on this forum.... (they probably don't want them displayed here)

thanks
Nate

Should have asked Nate, got them all.

Congradulations to Tim Dunn,saw him make a gallant attempt at Five mile point couple weeks ago.was running in top ten.He did fairly well untill some kind of mechanical issue sent him to the pits.At least he gave it a good try.The announcer talked about him many times.Thanks Tim for trying,89brc

Looks like Pete and Tim got the dirt car together civic sedan I think.

Nate, I got your phone message about the traveling series. I don't know what the Army has in store for me next year. I might be deployed, or maybe I won't be. As of right now, I'm not interested in a traveling series. I think it sound like a great idea, and I hope it works out for everyone who is interested. But I'm going to pass on the idea for now. Thanks for asking.